University of St. Thomas

When asked what one word best describes the finance major at St. Thomas, a faculty member replied, “rewarding.”

A real student asks:

 

“Does a financial manager deal with numbers all day or does s/he interact with people?

A finance faculty member responds: “A financial manager spends a substantial amount of her day interacting with people. Therefore good communication skills are absolutely necessary. The analytical work that a financial manager performs requires that she incorporate input from others with diverse areas of expertise. Likewise, her work must be clearly reported to the final decision makers in the organization.”

What jobs are possible with a Financial Management major?

What are recent graduates doing now?

There are too many people that we are proud of to name. Historically, we were primarily a place for people to get jobs in corporate finance. In the past ten years we now have investment banks and major investment firms recruiting on campus due to the competence of our graduates.

What opportunities are there to bolster my resume while I'm in the program?

Internships. There are a multitude of internships available, and we have the capacity to give an internship to everyone who wants one. This is due in part to our program’s reputation and the rich internship environment of the Twin Cities area. While some are paid internships, the experience to be gained justifies unpaid opportunities. Additionally, more and more companies are using internships as an extended job interview; many students get their first job offer from the firm with which they had their internship.

Study abroad. The majority of the finance students who study abroad go through the London Business Program because it is explicitly designed to not delay graduation for business majors. We also have had two real estate programs overseas in Rome and the Caribbean. These programs give students the opportunity to witness the application of finance in a context different from that in the United States.

Faculty at work

Dr. Jithendranathan and a student from Russia researched the differential of wheat prices across different regions of that country. Most of our faculty are active consultants to businesses, and most donate their time and expertise to major nonprofit organizations in order to advance the common good.